Former Blizzard Employee Takes the Side of Fans Regarding Diablo Immortal

Diablo Immortal is quickly becoming one of the most infamous titles of 2018, and it’s not even out. Since its debut, fans have been livid about the game with journalists and game developers criticizing fans for being “entitled” and other negative things. However, Mark Kern, who led the team behind World of Warcraft and help develop some of Blizzard’s other acclaimed titles such as Starcraft and Diablo II, took the side of the gamers stating that Blizzard has lost touch with gamers.

With a series of tweets, Kern explained how the announcement leading up to Diablo Immortal was poorly planned and Blizzard should’ve expected the backlash.

Blizzard gamers are not smugly "entitled." Nor are they toxic, and they most certainly are not made about a mobile version of Diablo because they hates the wemyzn (the craziest blue-check theory I've seen so far).

Since I was producer on Diablo 2, a lot of people have been asking for my thoughts on the whole "Diablo Immortal" fiasco. I hate to say it, but what you are seeing is Blizzard not understanding gamers anymore.

There is nothing wrong with having a mobile version of Diablo. In fact, I would have wanted one as an option. But the way it was hinted at, and presented, and the failure of Blizzard management to predict the backlash caught me my surprise. Blizzard used to be really gamer driven

Blizzard coyly played up the Diablo hype, which is a good move, but failed to anticipate that their PC based audience was going to expect…well…a PC based announcement. And that following all that hype up with a *different* product is a huge bait-n-switch feeling moment.

But what is really telling, is that this *surprised* them. They were expecting backlash, but they didn't have a plan for it. They didn't predict the wave. Any Diablo gamer could have simply TOLD you what would happen if you asked.

Blizzard never used to have to ask, because it was made up of hard core gamers from top to bottom. We used to say we were our own harshest audience for our games. I would have had a line of devs outside my door telling me this was a bad move.

Kern also talked about how “blaming” customers for not liking a product will lead to negative consequences down the line.

As for mainstream game journalists, they ARE blaming gamers, and so are a lot of know-nothing devs in mobile and indie. To them I say: be prepared to lose a lot of customers and money. Because it's never right to blame your customers for your own PR blunders and learn nothing.

It’s hard to argue against Kern, he is right. Many fans who attended BlizzCon are PC gamers who expected news relating to the platform. To end on a mobile announcement for one of the most acclaimed PC franchises of all time was just asking for trouble. Microsft and Bethesda both announced their own mobile titles relating to major franchises such as Gears of War and The Elder Scrolls but followed up with announcements with announcements that many were expecting. Whether it was Gears of War 5and The Elder Scrolls VI.

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